


The darkest part of the forest

by candles_to_stars



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Mortal Instruments (Movies), The Mortal Instruments Series - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Fairy Tale Elements, M/M, Mundane Alec Lightwood, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, The darkest part of the forest - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-08-11
Packaged: 2020-03-07 09:30:26
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18870463
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/candles_to_stars/pseuds/candles_to_stars
Summary: Once upon a time, in a little town called Idris, a boy and a girl wandered into the woods to find a glass case.And in this case laid a man, so fair, he could be nothing less then a prince.But children grow up. Secrets are kept. And the glass case will not remain unbroken.-greatly inspired by the book: the darkest part in the forest.





	1. Prologue

Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a small town called Idris. The town was surrounded by woods, and life was generally quiet. The only thing the town was known for, were the things that lived _inside_ the woods. Those things had many names, some people called them demons, some the fair folk, some called them fearies, but most called them downworlders. 

There were rules for interacting with downworlders. Though most people would say you simply should _never_ interact with them if you could help it.  
Never tell them your name, as names have power.  
Never eat their food, or you’ll want nothing else.  
Always be polite.  
And never, ever, make a deal with any of them, because you’ll end up with more then you bargained for. 

In this town, lived a small boy. He lived a quiet, happy life. His parents were off to work each day, often coming back just before the little boy would have to go to bed. But it was all right, he was never really alone, as he had his little sister to keep him company. He preferred it to be just the two of them, because they parents would only ever do what his sister wanted, and they wouldn’t play with him.  
The two of them often went off to have adventures together, wandering were they were told they could not, discovering secrets in the woods. 

One day, the two siblings would wander further into the woods then they normally did when they saw two downworlders between the trees. One was a man with green skin, horns on his forehead, while the other was a tall, blue woman. Upon seeing them, the little boy pulled his baby sister behind a shrub, because he remembered what their parents told him.  
_Never, ever interact with them if you can help it._

But the two were curious and brave, and when the downworlders simply kept on walking, they shared but a single look before following the pair. 

Which is how they found the case. 

The glass case was placed in the middle of a meadow, and the two downworlders sat next to it. They were talking, but their voices were too soft to be understood. Behind them, they could just make out a pair of legs and boots.

And when the downworlders left, and the sun was setting, the siblings walked forward and peered inside at the beautiful man displayed. He could be nothing less then a prince they decided.

The little girl leant forward and whispered full of childlike wonder that might send chills down the spines of adults: “Is he dead?”


	2. Now

Alec was sat on the glass case in the middle of the forest. All around him, people from his school were dancing, drinking, singing. It was in no way the quiet, desolate place Izzy and he’d thought they’d found all those years ago. Because yes, the magic lingered, but somehow everyone who lived in Idris seemed to know about the place where their prince slept. Hell, it was even advertised to tourists. 

Across the mass of bodies, just beyond the treeline, he could see his sister kissing the redhead who was in her class. She’s been at their house, but Alec was buzzed enough that he couldn’t remember her name. He should ask Iz sometimes. But not now of course. Her mouth was otherwise occupied.   
Alec envied her. Even now after all that had happened, she could still get whatever she wanted. 

Andrew pressed another beer into his hand and tugged him up on his feet.

“Come on, Alec! You’re sitting on the podium, you should be dancing on that!” All his words had a bit of a slur to them, knitting them together in strange places. The world swirled, swirled, swirled around him for a bit as Andrew’s hands pulled him closer until they were both somehow on top of the glass case, face to face with each other, back to back to the others who wanted to dance on the ‘podium’. 

Now that he was standing – dancing? – the woods around him seemed to sway with him. Twisting, turning, bowing. It made him feel a bit dizzy and unsteady on his feel, so he closed his eyes, focussing on the feeling of Andrew’s hands holding him up by his hips. Head thrown back, music pulsing through his body, warm bodies pressing in closer, closer, closer – 

“Now you’re having fun, aren’t you?” Andrew’s voice came from way to close – breath warm on his neck -, sending a cold shiver through his body as his eyes flew open. He looked down at the other boy, but instead his gaze was pulled towards the sleeping prince underneath the glass. His face was directly underneath Andrew’s feet, pulling in his gaze with his ethereal beauty. 

Eternal.  
Still.   
Unchanging.

The bottle slipped from his hand and landed on the case, beer spilling everywhere - the glass, their shoes, their pants; chillingly cold - before rolling onto the ground.

“I- I should go,” he somehow chocked out. All at once, everything was too much. The laugher and music and singing and yells around him. The people, the trees, _Andrew_ all seeming to close in on him. And the _expectations_ of how to dance, how to talk, how to feel, how to behave all chocking him up until he couldn’t think clearly anymore. 

He wanted to just go home. 

He wanted to just lay down next to the glass case when there was no one around and look up at the stars as he told the sleeping prince how tired he sometimes was of this small-town life. 

His feet slipped on the wet glass as he pulled way form his classmate and stumbled down. Away from Andrew and his easy laugh. Away from the music and the light of mobile phones that didn’t even work in the woods. Away from the party and everything it entailed.

The woods, as always, were blissfully quiet. 

As soon as he stepped between the trees, the sounds seemed to dim and the leaves seemed to shield him. His clumsy feet stumbled over the path to his house, and he was glad he got to know it so well over the past years as he wasn’t sure he’d be able to navigate it otherwise with the state he was in right now.

His hands touched the trees he passed, their bark rough under his hands. 

Grounding.   
Familiar.  
In a way that Andrew’s hands, no matter how warm and big, would never be. 

He passed the lake on his right side were tourists were sometimes drowned by downworlders, but apart form a ripple, all was quiet now. It was all right anyway. Alec knew the rules, and he knew he should follow them instead of trying to be cool and brave and dumb like most tourists. 

He simply kept walking on and on, following the twisting and turning path around boulders and trees as big as houses and streams crossing it.

He was almost home when he heard it.

“Alec!”

He swirled around way too fast, his head struggling to catch up as his feet stumbled over a tree root. The ground rose up to meet him and before he knew what was happening, he was laying on his back, branches and whatnot poking him as if in taunt of his awful balance. 

“Alec!” A whisper, just loud enough to be carried by the wind but loud and clear in the silence that normally laid over the forest.

He squinted into the darkness around him, trying to find whoever the voice belonged to. His first thought was stupidly enough that Andrew or someone else had followed him from the party, bummed that he left early, but why come forward just now, after walking for what was almost twenty minutes? Besides, he realized, he didn’t know the voice, so he knew it wasn’t someone he’d met before. Was it someone form school? Or… he didn’t know how to finish that thought. 

Whispers drifted through the trees, but he couldn’t make out any more words. 

He pushed himself up, placing a hand onto the tree next to him in order to keep standing. He stumbled a step forwards, back to the party.

“Hello?” He called out. “Is anybody there?” 

He strained his ears for a reply, but the only sound left was the rustling of leaves in the wind. No strange voice. No whispers. No nothing.

After standing there for god knows how long, he turned around and walked the rest of the way home.


End file.
